From the early 1980s, about the time South Africa embarked on their nefarious rebel tour plan, there were some selectors who came up with what they thought was a nifty idea: creating specialist teams, one for one-day internationals and one for Tests.As Kapil Dev once admitted, the concept has its advantages. After all, who would England rather have opening the batting in the 1970s as the ODI scene, and with it the World Cup and Packer rebellion, found new spectator appeal? Certainly not Geoff Boycott.At some stage, though another bright idea was going to surface: splitting the captaincy between two players because one is a better Test player than a limited-overs specialist. It had been suggested before, on an ad hoc basis and shot down as a flimsy disguise to undermine the power of the captain. This came in early 1994 when media speculation felt Hansie Cronje should take over as captain for the one-day series against Australia and let Kepler Wessels handle the Tests.It was a typical rumour, spread by insiders in the United Cricket Board and the suggestion came from Dr Ali Bacher. Peter Pollock, father of Shaun, dismissed the idea as disruptive. It would be as bad as saying to Sourav Ganguly that he should handle the Test team while perhaps Mohammed Kaif get some experience in the ODI arena by handling series against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.A totally woolly-minded idea if one was ever promoted. There is far more to leadership skills than the divisive habit which has spread in the form of some ugly skin rash. Not only would it be an insult to Ganguly, it would be a threat to the team’s identity, and that is the last thing a squad of players need. Just because the Australians have done it, several other selection panels seem to think it is a good idea.Australia have a tough professional squad, although how tough and how competitive emerged in the Caribbean where they lost the last three games to the Brian Lara led West Indies; and this after establishing a comfortable 4-0 lead. Ricky Ponting grumbled that five ODIs would have been preferable to seven. Did the Aussies decide they had done enough? It is one of the conundrums created by the system which has Steve Waugh as the Test captain and Ponting as the one-day leader.England and Sri Lanka have moved in the same direction and New Zealand’s skipper Stephen Fleming let it be known that he was not impressed, neither was Sri Lanka’s former leader, Arjuna Ranatunga.He may have been born on April 1, but Fleming is far from being anyone’s April Fool. He is also the sort of guy who also tells it like it is and, as all good Kiwis should when in the mood, he has the nifty habit of handing out either brickbats or bouquets.Leadership skills usually come highly recommended and are well noted at an early stage in a player’s career. In the case of Waugh, Ganguly and Fleming, they were well marked in advance and they are pretty decisive when it comes to opinions. So, why is it selectors embark on such a programme where they divide the leadership and create problems where there should be none?For one thing it devalues the expertise of a captain and his input. Sri Lanka’s example of Hashan Tillekeratne handing the Test side and Marvan Atapattu the ODI squad has already created divisions within the camp. Tillekeratne may be consistent as a batsman but he is also highly conservative as a captain. Atapattu is the opposite; he is self-assured and looks to be in charge.So far the selectors’ experiment has been mixed. Defeat at home in the recent triangular series and two great wins in the Caribbean against a side perhaps a little too cocky after winning three games against an admittedly disinterested World Cup champions Australia. Defending a modest total in the first and then successfully hunting down a plus 300 total in the second was impressive.Split captaincy leads to split teams and added confusion. It comes from a problem within a selection panel not quite sure what they want to achieve by an experiment which could so easily see teams such as England, Sri Lanka and even Australia lose their long-term focus. Such short-term shotgun prescriptions are unhealthy and divisive and display a lack of faith in the men selected as captain.
